The Birmingham News, February 3, 2002; p. 13a.

Delany Sisters brim with wisdom

By Pamela Morse
For the Birmingham News

Review gives 3.5 stars. Notes some adult language.

Please allow me to introduce to you Dr. Bessie Delany and her elder sister, Miss Sadie Delany. I will try to be on my best behavior in introducing you, because the Delany sisters would never tolerate unseemly rudeness.

The Delany ladies have much to tell us - about hard times and being kind to strangers, about New York in 1930 and North Carolina at the end of the Civil War. They will ever so gently instruct us on manners and history, the value of education and the proper ingredients of a macaroni-and-cheese casserole.

If this makes the Delany sisters seem boring or preachy, old-fashioned or uninteresting, then I have done you a serious disservice. Because Dr. Bessie and Miss Said share more than a century of reflection and affection, and have invited you into their home to hear all about it.

The play is the true story of Sarah and Elizabeth Delany, taken from their autobiography. They got into the writing business when both were more than a century old. The daughters of a slave, granddaughters of a white man prohibited by law from marrying the black woman he loved, they witness America's long and perilous journey from slavery through the civil rights movement toward a Mecca of equality.

The sisters retell the tales with laughter and only a few tears in the family-friendly production that opened Thursday night at Birmingham Festival Theatre.

Their compelling story is well acted by Donna Thornton Marbury as the younger sister Bessie, at just 101, and Chalethia Williams as the heart of the family, 103-year-old Sadie. Marbury handles well the righteous anger that fuels a fiery Bessie, but she ages less convincingly than Williams, who gracefully adds about 70 years to her own voice and gait.

The two actors perform heroically to keep our attention throughout this two-person, three-hour play. Fortunately, the writers' words transport us to other settings, and conjure a host of friends and relatives to help pass the century or so covered by their amiable ramblings.

The only noticeable flaws in the opening night performance were the makeup, which was applied like a mask to age these much younger actors, and a very few fumbled lines.

Russ Friedrikis' set created a warm workable kitchen, a flowed into distinct spaces that made a wall-lees parlor and dining room. The lighting at times was awkward, but the overall ambience was charming.

"Having Our Say" has much to say about race and prejudice, but it is never a "black" play, and in spite of their obvious pain over past injustices, the Delany sisters are neither bitter nor divisive. Their message is especially appropriate in 2002, more than a decade after it was written, in that Bessie noted that she would never refer to herself as an African American, because she was simply an American. And as good as - no, better than - most, she would be quick to add.

The BFT show drew only a small crowd on Thursday, perhaps suffering from competition with the Olympic figure skating on TV. Word of mouth, however, is sure to spread the good news about this small play with the big heart.

You'll be glad you met Bessie and Sadie, just two old ladies with girlish laughs and 100 years worth of wisdom.